Are You Man, Or Ghost?
by ladywinterfic
Summary: Naruto oneshots, non-pairing.  This is marked as complete due to each story being self-contained, but this will be updated as fic gets produced.
1. Hands Tied

******Are You Man or Ghost?**  
Hand Tied

.o0o.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto and am not making money off it.

**AN: **originally it's own story, this is where I'm now putting a collection of my non-pairing one-shots. I'll properly indicate if I ever continue this 'verse.

* * *

In the tired days and hurried dusks after the attack of the Nine Tails, the forces of Konohagakure were stretched like catgut, taut and tight; like a sharp tug in just the right direction could tear something open.

Everyone was sleep-deprived and among them were the ANBU called upon to care for That Newborn. These ANBU were the newly un-injured, or rather, the somewhat less injured; just mobile enough to care for an infant, but not well enough for normal missions. The Sandaime always made sure to talk to them about seals beforehand, about how kunai sealed into scrolls do not make the scrolls themselves sharp, and the ANBU listened but remembered the rumors coming from Suna and treated the baby like an explosive tag found in the field that did not belong to them.

It was either fortune or instinct that Naruto, even as a baby, liked attention, and cried whenever he wasn't held. It was fortuitous that the nin were tired, and inclined to do whatever it took to keep the fucking _noise _down. (Naruto was, and will always be, _loud_ and does not resemble an explosive tag for long.)

It was an unspoken rule that ANBU do not speak unnecessarily on-duty; the masks encourage this, as do their extensive hand signal vocabulary. What not even the Hokage knows, to say nothing of the nin themselves, is that every single one of Naruto's watchers during roughly his first two years of life had broken this rule, eventually.

Boar held the record (not that any record was kept) of the longest to resist talking. He was gruff and stern and loyal, and it took three months and a mission from hell and an entire team that did not return. He was alone, with a bum leg, a wound that kept seeping, and a four month old on his lap. He felt like a spool of ninja wire, wrung back wrong, too tense and too lax and innards all twisted up and he mentally went over that inital ambush yet again, wondered where it all went sideways, goes over it again, and yet again, and somewhere during the third or fourth time he realizes that his mouth is moving.

He is ANBU, so his words are not loud and do not carry, but he looks down to see blue, blue eyes looking up at him. There is no pity there, nor blame, nor any sort of request for information, but that is no surprise because the tiny blond is just a baby and understands nothing and Boar laughs at himself for worrying. And Boar tells him of the ambush and the counter-attack, of feints and retreats and deadly jutsu. Boar tells him of blood and of horror, like a bedtime story, and the kid eventually falls asleep. Boar eventually realizes that he feels better.

"Thanks, kid," he chuckles.

(Boar stopped telling bedtime stories when Naruto was almost two. Which is not Boar's fault, really, nor anyone else's. These things happen.

Naruto does not remember him, or the stories, not consciously. He remembers the sensation of someone...missing. He remembers looking and looking but the person who was Boar-shaped was no longer around, and a new Boar was there instead and it was strange. And he could not ask where Boar went. He'd learned early on not to speak, because whenever he did the animal-people stopped talking and rarely restarted.

Naruto found his words again, in the orphanages, because the squeaky wheel gets fed.)

Panther was actually the first to look after the Jinchuuriki, volunteered whenever she could, actually, but it took her a week to speak without choking. She made sure he was listening and spun the child tales of a strong-hearted not-a-lady, fiery, loud, annoying, and the best friend she didn't have. She told him of a sun-touched man everyone loved or was in love with, the strongest of shinobi, the most brilliant amongst them, his quiet cheerful strangeness and his smiles. By law, she cannot say _this is your mother_ or _that is your father_; but the law did not say she could not talk about her best friend. And law cannot ban people from speaking of the Yondaime.

Panther tried to make sure the child knows what love is, tries to tell him of these people to look up to, to _be_. She tried, as much as being busy with missions and kept behind a mask allowed one to do, to be a parent for Naruto.

But despite being carefully quiet while with the baby, she mused a touch too loudly among a few too many people of perhaps setting down her mask.

Her peers watched as she was given increasingly harder solo missions. Listening underneath the underneath they heard _she is compromised_.

(No one is surprised that one day she did not return. Naruto was ten months old.

Naruto does not know that a part of him remembers this love and these stories.

Naruto thinks he knows of the Yondaime from Blackbird, and he is half right.

Naruto does not know that Blackbird had a friend, and it is safer for Blackbird that he does not know who this friend was. It is probably safer for _Blackbird_ not to know who Blackbird's friend was. Blackbird does what she could, but she only knew the Yondaime. She tries to be careful and to hold herself aloof and she succeeds.

Because when she dies, when Naruto was four and a half, during a mission, knifed in the throat, it is due to natural causes.

So to speak.)

Of all of Naruto's caretakers, Wolf broke the fastest. It took four point six hours, eleven messes spread across two rooms, and one bright smile, sleepysticky_gross_, curled into his neck. He breathed, frustrated, and it felt like he took a breath of cold air and the air smelled of memorial stone (rancid and full of duty, and loyalty, and not being _enough_) and out of habit he found himself telling his sensei about the stupid failed day he just had and the small ball of piss and puke that some call a child, and Obito tells him to be grateful and he mutters '_shut up_', and through it all Wolf's lips barely move and the only sound that comes from him is what amounts to a low rumble. Naruto sighed, and curled closer.

Wolf tried to pull Jinchuuriki duty as little as possible, it was awkward and confusing and his least favorite thing. Too bad he kept getting injured and stuck with the brat.

Wolf was irritated because he hated hospitals and everyone in charge was very concerned that one of their top operatives has a death wish.

(Wolf is very good at lying. The trick is to tell the truth. He is, in fact, so good at lying because he lies to himself for practice.

Naruto remembers Wolf less because of content than because of constancy. He does not remember Wolf's voice because he'd never really heard it and their interactions before age two, to Naruto's half-there memories, mostly involved him wanting to do something and Wolf refusing. Subconsciously there's the sense of a warm rumble, and a heartbeat.

When Naruto was two he was given over to the orphanages and the ANBU's caretaker duties devolved mostly into watch detail.

Of those who watched him, because they cycled often, Wolf returned the most, and returned the longest, and Naruto would catch glimpses of him, a movement like shadows and ghosts and air.

Then one day when he was six, Wolf, too, left.)

The Sandaime's hands are tied. He tries to protect the Yondaime's child as best he can, which is not nearly enough, and to watch over him as much as he could. But he, even with the seeing crystal, couldn't really watch, because he was being watched as well. He hopes that the child was given enough care to not grow up...off. He knows the boy's parents were kind and caring and loyal, but he does not know if it will breed true.

He assigns the child ANBU, and hopes that will be enough. Only time would tell.

* * *

_end_

* * *

**AN:** So I was bunnied by Nature v. Nurture. Plus a dash of child brain/emotional development theory. I may or may not continue this fic, in which case there will be no pairings in the main fic. The main fic will be gen, and the pairing will be a sidestory.


	2. Follow Me Down

**Are You Man or Ghost?**  
Follow Me Down

.o0o.

**AN: **Really mostly gen., pairing if you squint, strangeness ahoy. Many thanks to Nightmaric for the prompt.

**Note:** I realized that I really ought to find a place for all my non-pairing oneshots. So I'm sticking them here, because the title seemed to fit and because while I may end up writing more in the universe of the original Man or Ghost, I'm not sure if I'd ever get around to it. Anyways, if I do, I'll still put them in this series.

* * *

Its a murky twilight, and even the busy streets seem muted and a little hollow. That's not rare these days though, to have Konoha feel like it's trembling in on itself.

Naruto catches Kakashi in an alleyway, catches his arms in a crucifix grapple hold, wrist at his windpipe, claws scratching at his jugular, at the mask at his jawline, and whispers into his ear, "They're coming." He was crooning, sing-song, "The sailors, they warn of red skies in morning, red skies, the red clouds, red eyes, they're coming, they're coming, I have to be stronger than clouds and make the eyes squish, _squish_."

The Jinchuuriki's claws stroke to the rhythm of his words, and Kakashi holds his breath. While the genin was really quite strange, usually not speaking much, speaking slowly if at all, eyes odd and very twitchy, he'd never been quite like _this_ before during any of their D ranks. He wonders if the Hokage knows; he'll have to swing by and speak to Danzo later.

Once fingernails like blades aren't digging into his veins.

"Believe it, please, help, help me hide, run, things shake loose, words want to shake with the world, and froggy-san says to feel the wind but the earth is too noisy, ne?" The words are dreamy but sharpened with a sense of the feral.

"Froggy-san?" he asks carefully around the pressure against his throat.

"Can't say the name, can't say it, can't, they'll _hear_ me."

"'They'?" There's many who keep an eye on the demon-container, and Kakashi wonders where they are. He wonders who else might be watching because someone's always; its why he wears a mask, reads a book, and tries to look tired even though he's not. (_But its true that he's tired,_ Kakashi's mind whispers, he always is, and he hasn't stopped since Konoha was darkened with the Sandaime's death.)

"Them." The blond agrees solemnly. "You ask lots," the body somehow contorts so a whiskered face peers into his one eye, and it strains the hold, "but do you believe?"

"How can," Kakashi chokes around the wrist, "can I believe you?"

The boy huffs and there is a scream in there, suppressed.

"Ji-rai-ya." He hissed, very very quiet, mouthing the sounds into his hair. "Believe it."

There was no way the boy could know of the man; his name is not exactly banned but. Its discouraged. One does not speak lightly of missing-nin; and you're a missing-nin if you leave Konoha while not under orders.

"Ji—" The word is choked away.

"Nnnhu-uh! Not allowed! Can't! He's leaves on the wind, sand in the shoe, machine won't stop if he's not lifting gears on his back, he has to have sex." The boy concludes, firmly.

"...what?"

"The bouncy ladies hit him for it though, he says he doesn't understand why, but you're not supposed to make love to ghosts so they yell and chase him away from all the hot water," the hold loosens a little, the claws retract, the touches become softer. "Froggy-san is stupid, if he wants hot water he should just heat it up himself."

"I'll... have to tell him that." Kakashi is worried, because he thinks he's understanding the crazy sing-song a little and he doesn't like what he's putting together. There is no real way that Naruto could know so much about Jiraiya on his own (does he even have clearance to know of Tsunade's death?), so either he's met the man or someone told him. Or he is spirit-touched, a part of Kakashi's mind whispers, or simply completely mad. Except madness shouldn't make so much sense. The very fact that Naruto's trying to hide that he knows Jiraiya indicates there's something that _needs_ hiding.

He thinks of his own masks, and wonders if Naruto's wearing one of his own. Perhaps he should just ask—

"No! Nonono, you can't, you _can't_ tell him that!" And the crucifix hold's strung _tight_ again," You can't tell! Wood _li__stens_, rock _listens_, the roots of the tree are rotting and crawl like snakes and you don't know where they bite! You'll sleep!" Naruto is almost sobbing, "And I will be gone. They'll _take_ me."

Idly Kakashi wishes that he trained a bit more, a genin shouldn't be able to choke this much air out of him, but it's so hard to _care_ these days. Or find anything that matters.

The blue of Minato-sensei's eyes set in the shape and the steel of Kushina's stare meets his own, and challenges him, "You were safe because you have two eyes, one half open and half closed and no one knows where it looks, and one all opened seeing above and beneath, and they _fear_ you. You were safe because you were strong. But not if snakes bite."

Naruto's shaking enough for a little lee-way, and Kakashi twists quickly and grabs up the boy. But he changes his mind mid-hold and changes the grip into a firm, tight hug.

"Shh," he whispers into the blond hair. "Calm." He wonders what had happened to make the Jinchuuriki this way, if being raised by Danzo produced a mind this shattered or if it was simply a way for the boy to protect himself and to hide. (_Or, _his mind whispers, _spirit-touched. He has the Nine Tails in him._)

"Naruto," he asks, very very quietly, "can you speak clearly?"

"Even sunlight has dust in it," came the reply.

Is it code, are they watched? Or does it mean that Naruto is truly sane and was pretending?

Or is it simply more babbling? Kakashi's hold loosens and the genin, even glowing with orange, flits away like a will-o-th'-wisp.

* * *

"You shouldn't ask that, Kakashi."

It is the second time the Copy Nin has gotten that response. He knows better than to ask around to get a third, because that makes it a pattern and patterns get observed.

* * *

"Heh, the boy's crazy Kakashi."

"Maa, is he now?" He'd stumbled onto the missing-nin during his solo A-rank. Not that he'd been really looking for the man, certainly.

"Mmm. Strange things come out of the kid's mouth, why are you bothering to read into it?" There was barely any expression in the Frog-Sage's eyes. His face, though, was full of frustration.

But for whom? Or for what?

"Now shoo, peeping waits for no man."

* * *

His penlight was wobbly, but it was enough to read by, and the list of Naruto's medications, tried, failed, used, discarded, were long.

The blond was still on two, both stabilizers, enough to drop an elephant.

* * *

Kakashi is loyal to Konoha, this everyone knows. Relentlessly loyal, to teammates, to shinobi, to their village, to their Hokage; but what no one knows is that the Copy Nin's mostly reflecting their loyalty back at them. A small part of him feels humbled by the loyalty he is shown, and tries, and tries to repay in kind. (This small part may, or may not be, an eyeball.)

No one can doubt that their Hokage was loyal to Konoha as well.

But Kakashi finds himself struggling with how to repay Danzo's loyalty, in kind.

* * *

"Come with us, said the fox to the hound."

Kakashi looks at the smile being offered to him and the wild, unsettling light in those blue eyes.

"The froggy leads and the fox chases to eat up his words; will the hound follow us down the rabbit hole?" Now the smile becomes uncertain, and the gaze becomes feverish and even more intense.

Kakashi's had enough conversations with Naruto by now to guess at what he's asking. He thinks to the very strange conversation he'd had with Jiraiya. He knows he was being tested but he didn't know tested for what, if he should believe the blond, or not; it's been a very frustrating few weeks and all his leads have given him more questions than answers.

Naruto could be wrong, he thinks. They might not meet up with Jiraiya. There's nothing to prove that the boy wasn't just insane. He'll be charged with helping Naruto turn missing-nin, most likely end up labeled a missing-nin.

"If I follow you—"

"You can, you can. Jiraiya is waiting, come with! He will raise you strong too! Trust me! Believe it!"

"I'm already strong." Those disconcerting eyes didn't leave his and didn't blink and he feels his eye water in sympathy. If this was an act, then it was _flawless_. If it wasn't an act, then it was just shy of frightening.

"You were genius, but then you talked to a rock, kept talking to the rock, and then became a rock instead of a shadow."

"I—"

"And Konoha did not wait for you to be more than you were. Come," the blond insisted. "It would change _everything_, patterns will tilt. Roots will shake, Tree will _heal_."

Kakashi has learned nothing that could prove Naruto's words. Not definitively, not with assurance.

He spins starlight for all Kakashi knows, impossibilities with grains of truth. Dreams within nightmares. But Naruto hints at the shadows Kakashi senses at the edges of his eyes, that it seems that only the Copy Nin would admit to. Hints at something larger that teases at the mind.

Looking at the wildness of Naruto's smile, Kakashi knows he has not been that wild since he'd learned to throw blades. And Kakashi knows he has not been more awake or alert or aware in years, perhaps a decade, perhaps even more. He has not _questioned_, in far too long.

And something breaks apart in his chest. And Naruto's eyes spark, fanged, and turns to leave.

And he follows the changeling into the darkness.

* * *

_end._

* * *

**AN:** Red pill or green pill? Or the better question, which one did Kakashi end up taking? Weigh in!

I have to admit, that was fun. XD The original prompt was for Insane!Naruto.


	3. Void

**Are You Man or Ghost?**  
Void

.o0o.

**Summary: **The moments when Naruto comes back and finds Konoha decimated by Pein...

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto, not making money off this.

**Warnings: **none

* * *

It was more (_he doesn't understand_)

obvious, with the sage energy running (_doesn't make sense_)

through him, the difference in (_the world..._

_doesn't make *sense*_) the feel of Konoha,

cratered, wrecked, empty of (_why..._

_does he feel so *alone*?_), empty of many things, but empty of one

chakra signature, empty of the feeling of one

person, in particular

(_and he doesn't know how to react_).

* * *

_end_

* * *

**AN: **Experimental style, based on a sentence prompt from the kakanaru LJ comm that turned out particularly well. And it always squished my heart the way Kishimoto drew Naruto, recognizing that Kakashi died, because there's still things to do. Because the sky is falling.


	4. Conversations at the Memorial Stone

**Are You Man or Ghost?**  
Conversations at the Memorial Stone

.o0o.

**AN: **lady_ganesh requested "What does Kakashi tell Obito about Naruto?", with thanks to shewhoflies for inspiration!

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto, not making money off this.

* * *

It was only five years after the Kyuubi burned through their ranks, after they were left scrambling for resources, after Minato-sensei—

Kakashi managed a single peek at the child and the perfect gold of that hair curdled his stomach.

"He looks fine," Kakashi reassured Minato-sensei. The boy had been alone and playing with a kunai and gouging lines in the floor, Kakashi remembered doing much the same himself at that age.

He didn't know what to tell Obito.

* * *

"...and then the eraser fell on my head." Kakashi muttered, peering at the stone. "You probably would have laughed."

The pretty girl, the brooding genius, and the deadlast. Sarutobi really was trying to tell him something maybe.

But winced and shook his head, "Or he would've made you cry." The laundry-list of pranks the boy pulled off was both impressive and absurd. If Minato's son just _tried_ at school he might actually have gotten somewhere. The fact that his genius sensei's son was _deadlast_ galled him to no end.

He couldn't bring himself to tell his sensei of that fact, just mumbled that he'd passed the little blond genin.

* * *

"...He's nothing like you," Kakashi concluded, disappointed. Naruto just skimmed by old ladies with nary a hello and shouting every which way and being brashly overconfident. It was all Kakashi could do to tone him down, like nothing Kakashi said could shake him, like nothing Kakashi did could make him cry.

(Kakashi still could barely look at the blond's face. The hair alone shocked him, every time.)

Naruto was rarely late, and didn't have a family who insisted he develop a bloodline, and never made excuses. _I will be better next time!_ roared the boy's stance, shoulders, and clenched fist, roared whenever he wasn't fastest at their D-rank, whenever Sasuke beat him down during sparring. _I will beat you!_

Naruto had been the one tied to the log, so Kakashi didn't know if Naruto would push his teammate away from a boulder.

_I'm gonna smash your face in!_ Naruto had yelled, and Kakashi knew that Obito would never say such a thing.

* * *

"...he asked if shinobi could be more than tools." Kakashi didn't know what to make of this, even now. Still could not believe that Naruto compelled a high-rank missing-nin into fighting for them (and dying for them) with only a few words.

"I think you would have cheered for him."

He'd managed to look at Naruto during that trip. Felt both relieved and pained that sensei didn't pass on his features. He found the color of Minato-sensei's eyes on another person's face, a blending of a little of Minato and a lot of someone else.

Kushina-senpai.

Kushina-senpai's eyes looking like they're trying to look strong, a quiet echo of desperation and loneliness deep in it's puddles.

* * *

"I watched him use a technique that he saw performed _twice_." Kakashi mumbled. "Probably sensei's influence."

It's not like Naruto had the sharingan.

A small tendril of pride curled through him, and he stamped it out because he had no right to be proud. Naruto was his soldier, competing in a mock-war for the honor of Konoha. Nothing more.

"Tell sensei to be proud of him, Obito."

* * *

"He's nothing like you," Kakashi repeated, to himself more than to Obito. His student had failed to bring back his wayward teammate. Had both eyes intact.

"He's nothing like you," he repeated, to himself more than to Minato. Naruto had the fading scars of a hole in his chest.

Bandaged from top to toe.

But alive.

Naruto was _alive_.

"He's nothing like you."

* * *

Jiraiya looked at him from the corner of his eye. "I'm going to be taking Naruto on a training trip."

Kakashi nodded, dripping ghosts. "Aa. That would be best."

* * *

_end_

* * *

**AN: **I'm not exactly sure what I was doing with this. But it felt complete. =\


End file.
